The Thousands

Ryan McPhun is a musical Krishna; the multi-talented operator behind The Ruby Suns has a new album out on Sub-Pop called Fight Softly. With an almost entirely new sonic palette compared to that of 2008′s lush Sea Lion the Sun’s new album represents a trip out into sparse synth land. I spoke to Ryan during my lunch break.  

Dominic Kirkwood: I heard on the grapevine that you recently bought a house in New Zealand?
Ryan McPhun: Bought a house? No (laughs)

DK: I thought with ‘Oh Mojave’ being on that Microsoft ad it would’ve been enough…
RM: …Not enough money to buy a house!

DK: Do you record at home?
RM: I’ve got a space now. It’s next to a commercial studio (in Auckland) and I’ve got this big room where I put all my stuff. When I recorded the album (Fight Softly) I ended up being there most days.

DK: 2008′s Sea Lion had such an expanded palette with field recordings and lush instrumentation. Fight Softly is a lot sparser, was that a challenge you put on yourself to make a radically different album?
RM: Yeah that’s exactly what it was. I wanted to try different techniques; I wanted to try to make vocals clearer and mix them louder, that’s a real challenge for me. I wanted to try different ways of doing things; to make each instrument stick out more, even though (the album) is still quite washy.

DK: Was it a process of refining each song to the ‘nth’ degree?
RM: Only to a certain degree though because it did get to a stage where a friend was mixing the album. I’m a perfectionist, in some ways I could keep working on songs forever.

DK: Is there anyone in particular that you use for that refining process that you trust?
RM: My friend Bevan Smith, we both play in a band called Signer together, he was also in the Ruby Suns for all of 2009. We send a lot of music back and forth to each other and we’re our own reference buddies. I would send him demos and stuff and he would say ‘You should try this’. He was (also) the one who helped mixed the album.

DK: I was reading a review today on Fight Softly and the reviewer described the album under the ‘Chillwave’ genre and in my head I said to myself ‘WTF is Chillwave?’ What are your thoughts on lumping music under these weirdly spliced genres?
RM: I don’t know. It’s just for music journalists and the teenagers that read blogs; it means nothing to anyone else. From what I’ve heard of that so-called genre a big part of it is lo-fi production, which is the opposite of what I was going for (in Fight Softly).  Even though my album cost zero dollars I was trying to make it sound as slick as possible, which was another challenge even though it was done on a laptop.

DK: In New Zealand, what’s turning you on as far as other bands go?
RM: There’s a few cool things. There are a lot of guitar bands; probably my favourite guitar band is Street Chant. Signer is definitely my favourite, although I’m in the band it’s mainly Bevan Smith’s project. We share a lot of influences; we’re basically obsessed with pop.

DK: I’m going to end it on this one; what’s your favourite New Zealand delicacy? We’re talking food.
RM: Gosh, that’s tricky. There’s a café near my old flat that has the most incredible toasted haloumi sandwich. I would have to say that, it’s mind blowing.